But
later at the
stakeout,
Churkin said
it is not the
Council's role
to endorse
calls
for power to
be
transferred,
as the Arab
League plan
does.

Despite
some
breathless
major media
tweets on
Tuesday
morning that
Russia's
foreign
minister
Lavrov would
come to New
York, he
wasn't even
taking
Hillary
Clinton's
telephone
calls. A
Russian
Mission source
mocked
the "Western
media's
mis-reports"
to Inner City
Press,
saying of
Lavrov, "He's
in New
Zealand."

When
she came out,
Hillary
Clinton took
only two
questions,
telling a
chosen
reporter
that nothing
should be read
into Lavrov
not taking her
call, she's
traveled in
Australia and
it can be
difficult.

Susan
Rice and
Hillary
Clinton,
Lavrov's phone
not shown (c)
MRLee

After
Hillary
Clinton,
German
Minister of
State Michael
Link spoke at
the stakeout.
Inner City
Press asked
him, since
he'd referred
to crimes
against
humanity, if
Germany could
agree to the
type of
immunity that
Ali
Saleh of Yemen
got, under the
Gulf
Cooperation
Council plan
the
Council
largely
endorsed.

"It's too
early to say,"
Link
replied, "but
I think that
there is a
necessity of a
special
inquiry." So
he meant it's
too early
until the
crimes are
investigated?
Or perhaps he
really meant,
as the Council
agreed to in
Yemen, he
meant that
accountability
could be
traded away?

Inner
City Press
has been
informed of
Saleh's
whereabouts in
New York -
watch this
site on that.

After
Link, the
UK's William
Hague strode
to the
stakeout.
Throughout the
open
meeting,
various
diplomats
polled by
Inner City
Press said
that Hague
had been the
best, with his
improvised
snark against
Syria blaming,
for example,
Lawrence of
Arabia.
(Portugal's
Paulo Portas
got an
honorable
mention for
citing
Dostoevsky.)

Inner
City Press
asked Hague if
Assad
transferring
power is a
precondition.
Hague
replied that
it's all about
the Arab
League plan -
and the plan
provides for
that.

As
noted, Churkin
says Russia
will not agree
to that, even
if the Arab
League is
asking
for it. The
Arab League's
Secretary
General Nabil
Elaraby did
not
speak at the
stakeout,
declaring in
the glare of
the UN parking
lot
-- as filmed
by Inner City
Press -- that
there would be
no more
answers.

Qatar,
too,
canceled its
press
conference
scheduled for
5 pm. A shame,
too, since
Hillary
Clinton said
that Syria,
and by
implication
other
countries,
shouldn't be
run by one man
or his family,
and Syria's
Ambassador
Ja'afari
snarked about
its "satellite
television
channel and
fancy
conference
centers."

As
France's Alain
Juppe came to
the stakeout,
before Hillary
Clinton, the
sounds was
turned off to
the media of
the speech
China's Li
Baodong. Juppe
spoke in
French, and
took his first
question in
French.

Then
Inner City
Press asked
him about
Paragraph 44
of the Arab
League
monitoring
report,
which says
that "Mission
reports from
Homs indicate
that
the French
journalist was
killed by
opposition
mortar
shells."
(Inner City
Press on
January 28
obtained and put the report
online, here.)

After first
asking for a
translation
from the
Mission's
spokesman,
Juppe
maintained
that the
report is not
endorsed by
the Arab
League.

But
when Inner
City Press
asked Russia's
Churkin about
just this an
hour later,
Churkin notes
that it was
the Arab
League itself
which asked
that the
monitoring
report be
annexed and
made into an
official
document of
the Security
Council.

Thus it's been
endorsed not
only about the
Arab
League, but
also the
Security
Council. We
aim to have
more on this.

Churkin on UN
TV, BRICS
groupies, UN
Jan 31 (c)
MRLee

Inner
City Press
covered the
expert level
negotiations
on the draft
on Monday
night,
and took to
calling
Tuesday's
meeting the
"Syria
Superbowl,"
with the
connotation of
too much build
up and hype,
ending in a
whimper or a
blow-out.

In what many
called a
typical
slip-up, in
the middle of
the Syria
meeting,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon who
was not in
town issued a
statement of
concern about
a country
beginning with
the letter S -
except it
wasn't Syria,
or even South
Sudan, but
Senegal.
Galling, one
observer
called it.

Several
diplomats at
meeting's end
said this
was right. But
unlike the NFL
Superbowl,
which marks
the end of the
sport for some
months, at the
UN on
Wednesday
negotiations
on the
draft
resolution
will continue.